Dial-up and D/L it? Wow.... from Austraila even...hehe
Your a better man that I, Gunga-Din.
I'm gonna wait till one of those PC Game mags, has it on a demo disk (should be in about a week or so). Then I'll get it... because I can't wait for it to D/L.
Jim

Slower - no jump-ducking, if you want to sprint you can't wield a weapon, etc. It goes for realism first and foremost, as I guess it should.

Great looking engine, all the weapons I've used so far (just the ones in the offline training missions) look amazing, the Colt being my fav. Smoke grenades are the best looking of any game thus far.

I have yet to get on an internet server and play, but I was able to set up a lan server and try the "Online" MOUT mission - would be fun with small squads of friends. It seems that all of the HomeLAN servers are down until Monday I heard for a patch or something.

Promising if they can get rid of all the CS morons that we all know so well - the ones who like to TK or Flashbang their own team for their own amusement and all that crap.

the launch was an absolute disaster, but things are finally stabilizing. go to www.americasarmy.com to download the game. there is no in game web-browser yet so you'll have to use gamespy to find a server to play on.
before playing online , you'll have to complete the basic training portion of the game. after qualifying throught that, you'll have to find an ARMY server for MOUT McKenna.
Qualifying through opens up the rest of the maps.
Gamespy interface is as clumsy gets, so here's how to get around it. Find a server and right click, copy IP addresse. open notepad and paste. open the cosole by pressing "~" and type open followed by the IP.

Gamespy is such crap I can't anyone still uses it. There seems to be a bug in army where even if you don't connect to a server to play it still sends out tons of packets. I tried playing this weekend but after I closed everything down my cable modem was going crazy for about 15 minutes. So no wonder the servers ping times are awful. There are some posts about this on the army forums also.

I'm really concerned about the team killing from the quake/CS people that will be playing. Its going to be very difficult to advance through some of the maps if they keep team killing. The rules say they will kick you off the map if you do it a lot, but are there really people on every server watching for this?

Oh for those of you that have finished the marksmen, what ranking did you get? I got expert! Sniper school here I come (whenever they finish it that is)!

I'm really concerned about the team killing from the quake/CS people that will be playing. Its going to be very difficult to advance through some of the maps if they keep team killing. The rules say they will kick you off the map if you do it a lot, but are there really people on every server watching for this? "

rack up ROE points (rules of engagement)by shooting teamates and general TK like behavior and you're sent to prison, literally. you'll have to disconnect from the server to play again

I was finally able to get in a server and play for a bit. Its definitely hard. Didn't have a clue what I was doing but eventually figured it out. But there seems to be zero cooperation. Everyone was playing it like deathmatch to try and rack up kills...annoyed the hell out of me. It was buggy too. Graphical glitches and a lot of matches just ended all of a sudden and it wasn't because of objectives. You can't tell who's alive and whos not on the opposing team. You don't even know how many people are on the opposing team. I know its supposed to be realistic, but it is supposed to be a game first. Its very hard to tell your teammates from the enemies. you'd think they'd be colored different or something but the only way I saw was the small dot for your crosshair changed color. But only within a certain distance, otherwise you were guessing but could still be hit. Eventually I got disconnected from the server for no apparent reason. Its definitely not ready for prime time.

I was finally able to get in a server and play for a bit. Its definitely hard. Didn't have a clue what I was doing but eventually figured it out. But there seems to be zero cooperation. Everyone was playing it like deathmatch to try and rack up kills...annoyed the hell out of me. It was buggy too. Graphical glitches and a lot of matches just ended all of a sudden and it wasn't because of objectives. You can't tell who's alive and whos not on the opposing team. You don't even know how many people are on the opposing team. I know its supposed to be realistic, but it is supposed to be a game first. Its very hard to tell your teammates from the enemies. you'd think they'd be colored different or something but the only way I saw was the small dot for your crosshair changed color. But only within a certain distance, otherwise you were guessing but could still be hit. Eventually I got disconnected from the server for no apparent reason. Its definitely not ready for prime time.

the emphasis is on realism, knowing who's dead or alive on the opposing team would give you too much of a leg up. and differentiating friend from foe is part of the combat experience. it's definetly not easy.

as far as server connections, it is indeed a bit buggy. disconnections happen alot. The official ARMY army servers are the worst.

I think the reason I got disconnected is that I qualified! There was no notification but when I looked I saw that I can now get into the other maps. There is no way I won 4 or 5 rounds. The team I was on sucked so badly. But I did have a lot of kills and got many objectives (even won a round once while everyone else was dead with me taking out 3 opponents in the process). Another thing I hate is the interface. There is zero feedback when you are trying to connect telling you what is going on.

the emphasis is on realism, knowing who's dead or alive on the opposing team would give you too much of a leg up. and differentiating friend from foe is part of the combat experience. it's definetly not easy.

Yeah I understand completely why its the way it is. I'm just saying they might have gone a little too far. There is a very fine line between realism and making it a fun game. But don't get me wrong it is fun. Its refreshing not seeing people jumping all over the place and running like crazy still being able to headshot you while you are flying through the air and they are going the opposite direction. My aim still isn't very good if I'm moving and I can't figure it out. I got killed so often by people sweeping past me moving and they hit me every time while I was stationary and crouched tracking them and shooting.